Spoiler alert: Experience is actually irrelevant. But before you jump on our backs and cancel us, let us explain for a moment.
In today’s world, experience is seen as the golden key to opening the doors of opportunity.
And for some reason, people keep asking for a bigger, shiner key every day.
However, in reality, experience is actually irrelevant and not as crucial as it’s made out to be.
In this article, we’ll show you how to deal with situations where experience is demanded but not exactly necessary.
Don’t worry if you don’t feel like reading; you can enjoy the video below or watch it on YouTube:
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First, let’s define what experience is
Experience is essentially about two things: predictable outcomes and feeling comfortable in familiar situations.
It’s like having seen the same movie several times; you know what’s coming next, and that familiarity brings a sense of ease.
Let’s refer to someone who’s been in their job for years.
They’ve encountered a variety of scenarios and now have a good grasp on what to expect in certain situations.
This experience gives them a sense of control; they’re comfortable because they’ve been down this road before.
And it’s also about how at ease you feel handling them.
Comfort is a big part of what experience brings to the table.
It’s like driving the same route every day—you start to do it almost on autopilot because you’re so used to it.
So, in a nutshell, experience gives you a playbook of sorts for dealing with the familiar, and it creates a zone of comfort where you feel confident and in control.
Which sounds great in theory, but in reality, it doesn’t mean much.
Let’s exemplify why experience is irrelevant by taking a chef and some guy with a cookbook, and they both have to make a basic dish.
Can you confidently tell who’s done what?
You see, this is where the importance of experience starts to crack because something as trivial as a how-to manual can easily replace experience.
When people say they have 10 years of experience, what they actually mean is that they’ve been doing the same thing over and over again for 10 years.
And this is how you get outlandish statements like, “Oh, our company has 250 years of combined experience.”
This is when people make mistakes.
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Experience vs Expertise
Simply put, you can have years of experience without being an expert.
Experience is about familiarity and comfort in dealing with certain situations. That’s why experience is irrelevant, because it doesn’t guarantee quality.
It’s a retrospective accumulation of “been there, done that.”
Expertise, on the other hand, is about achieving a high level of skill or knowledge in a particular area. It’s the depth, not the duration, of understanding and ability.
An expert doesn’t just know the route. They can navigate it blindfolded, innovate new paths, and guide others.
And when people ask for experience, what they really mean is expertise; they just don’t know how to ask.
While experience is often a function of time, expertise demands something more intense and intentional—deliberate practice and execution.
This distinction is crucial in understanding why expertise can be developed faster and be more valuable than years of experience.
Experience is inherently tied to the passage of time. It’s accumulated by simply being present in a role or field over the years.
Imagine a teacher with 20 years in the classroom or a carpenter who’s been crafting furniture for decades.
Their experience is a byproduct of time spent in their professions.
They’ve seen patterns, handled recurring challenges, and developed a certain predictability in their work.
However, time alone does not guarantee the depth of insight or the highest skill level.
It ensures familiarity, yes, but not necessarily expertise.
Expertise, in contrast, is built through deliberate practice and focused execution.
It’s not just about doing a task repeatedly; it’s about doing it with the intent to improve, push boundaries, and continuously refine your skill.
This requires a level of dedication and conscious effort far beyond what typical day-to-day experience demands.
Consider a musician. Simply playing the same pieces for years won’t make them experts.
Instead, it’s the musician who constantly challenges themselves with new, complex compositions and seeks feedback to improve and rapidly develop expertise.
That’s why people plateau once they hit a certain level. Experience can only get you so far.
This focus on deliberate practice means expertise can sometimes be developed quicker than experience.
An individual dedicating intense, targeted effort toward mastering a skill can often outpace someone with years of casual, less-focused involvement.
Experience is irrelevant because of the quality, not just the quantity, of time spent.
In our fast-paced, ever-changing world, the ability to rapidly develop expertise is invaluable.
Industries evolve, new technologies emerge, and adaptable, highly skilled experts are the ones who lead the charge.
The concept of spending decades slowly accruing experience is becoming less relevant in some fields, especially those that are rapidly advancing.
In fact, expertise isn’t just about practice; it’s also about execution—applying what you’ve learned in real-world scenarios.
This is where theory meets practice, and deep understanding is tested.
The expert is not just someone who knows; it’s someone who can effectively apply and adapt their knowledge.
This leap from knowledge to application is what separates the true masters from the merely experienced.
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So, why do people still ask for experience?
Well, there are a few reasons why people ask for experience even though it’s irrelevant:
1. A lot of companies don’t want to spend time and money training someone new.
It’s easier and cheaper for them to hire someone who’s already been trained somewhere else.
They’d rather have someone hit the ground running than invest in teaching a newcomer.
2. Playing it safe over being bold
Businesses often think hiring experienced people is less risky.
They believe someone who’s done the job before will automatically do it well again.
This mindset can be short-sighted, though.
It assumes that just because something worked in the past, it’ll work now, ignoring the need for fresh, new ideas.
3. Experience doesn’t always mean skill
Just because someone has been doing a job for a long time doesn’t mean they’re the best at it.
But it’s a quick way for companies to sift through lots of applicants.
It’s like saying, ‘They’ve done this for years; they must be good,’ which isn’t always true.
4. Covering their backs
For those in charge, picking someone with lots of experience is a safer bet.
If the person with tons of experience messes up, it doesn’t look as bad for the person who hired them.
It’s a way to avoid blame if things go south.
So, how can you bypass all of this?
By having proof of ability rather than a track record.
Proof of work is concrete evidence of what you can actually do and how well you can do it.
It’s not just about stating you’ve held a position; it’s about showing the results and impact of your work.
This could be a portfolio for a designer, a coding project for a developer, or a successful marketing campaign for a marketer. It’s the tangible outcome of your skills and expertise.
The beauty of proof-of-work is that it’s something entirely within your control.
The limitations of a job role or the passage of time do not apply to you.
You can actively build and refine your portfolio or project, continually adding to your proof of work.
It’s dynamic, allowing you to adapt and update as you acquire new skills and achieve new successes.
In many industries, proof of work can effectively bypass the need for traditional experience.
It shifts the focus from where you’ve been to what you can actually produce.
For employers or clients, it offers a more accurate and current representation of your capabilities.
It answers the question, “Can this person do the job?” with a resounding “Yes, and here’s the proof.”
Start focusing on creating or enhancing your proof of work.
Undertake personal projects that showcase your abilities, contribute to open-source projects, create designs, or write articles—anything that adds to your portfolio.
Every piece of work you add is a step towards solidifying your expertise in your field.
This is the ultimate form of “experience.” The one from which you actually have something to show.
Furthermore, so many people complain about not having the chance to build experience without realizing that it’s completely in their own hands.
In brief, the main idea is this: whatever you decide to do, understand that you have full control over your level of expertise.
It’s all about how much effort and focus you put into it, not how long you’ve done it.
You can easily compete with people who have decades of this so-called “experience” by focusing on expertise instead.
It’s a mindset shift that doesn’t allow you to find excuses for a lack of experience.
In any case, focus on building expertise and you’ll get comfortable naturally along the way.
Finally, in a world where tangible results often speak louder than the years listed in a resume, building proof of ability is essential.
Furthermore, don’t wait for others to give you a chance to build experience. And don’t let others hold you back because you lack experience.
When you make your work impossible to ignore, your “experience” or how long you’ve been doing it is irrelevant. See you next time!
